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Business means we welcome to the studio Yuka Moriya, our business editor. Great to see you as always. Hi Mark. Uh with tensions flaring again in the Strait of Hormuz, the question remains, how are the oil markets holding up? Well, Mark, unsurprisingly, crude prices spiked as the United Arab Emirates said it had come under Iranian drone and missile attacks, and a South Korean merchant ship anchored off the UAE caught fire following an explosion. International benchmark Brent crude is up by nearly 6% to above $114 a barrel, while the US's West Texas Intermediate has climbed to around $106 a barrel, Mark. So, that's the situation with the oil markets that Japan and Australia have
signed a new deal on energy security and rare earth minerals. Well, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi met with her Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese in Canberra, agreeing to bolster cooperation in a range of areas amid an energy crisis caused by the Iran war and uncertainty created by the US's trade policy. Australia accounts for nearly 40% of Japan's natural gas imports and over 70% of its coal. Japan, for its part, is a major supplier to Australia of refined petroleum and diesel. Takaichi's visit also comes after Tokyo lifted a long-standing ban on exporting lethal weapons abroad. Last month, the two countries signed a landmark defense deal worth over 6 billion euros with
contracts for the first three of 11 warships to be built in Japan for the Australian Navy. Here's what the two leaders had to say today. We are the frontrunners in like-minded partnerships with pioneering security cooperation. I can say that we have built a relationship that can be described as a quasi alliance. Our two countries have never been more strategically aligned. We work closely to advance our shared interests in a peaceful, stable, and prosperous region. The energy crisis caused by the war in Iran has been a wake-up call and prompted governments to try to speed up a shift to electric cars. So, could
solar cars be next? Well, Mark, solar cars have been around for decades with an international cross-continental race held in Australia since the 1980s, but due to technical challenges in generating enough electricity to power a passenger car, they have so far remained experimental. But now, one US startup says it's come a step closer to bringing solar cars to the mass market. For more, let's bring in a Steve Fambro, co-CEO of Aptera Motors. Thank you for joining us, Steve. My pleasure. Thanks for having me. Now, first of all, why is it so difficult then to make commercially viable solar cars?
Well, I think it's difficult traditionally because cars use a lot of energy just pushing the air out of the way, and car companies make cars that look boxy and traditional. They don't think about drag. We started out making the most efficient vehicle possible, and that makes it able to harvest solar energy for meaningful range. Well, efficient indeed, but then looking at your design, it's very lightweight, it's very small. Cars are also, of course, a means of transport. It has to carry people. How efficient can your car be in that sense? Well, it holds two passengers, and the cargo area in back stores up to 1,000 L of cargo space. So, that's more luggage than you can put in most conventional
cars. So, it's actually quite big inside. It even has a camping tent option, which turns into a camping vehicle, and you can sleep inside of it. So, it's quite roomy inside. What happens when it rains or during the night? You just get less free charge. You can still plug it in like a regular electric vehicle, but most people driving less than 60 km a day won't need to plug it in at all. Well, so you recently rolled out the first car off your validation assembly line, and you're hoping to start delivering the model to customers. When are you aiming to start mass producing your solar car?
The first small volume vehicles will go to customers later this year. Large volume manufacturing starts next year in 2027, but we hope customers will have them in their hands starting this year. Um are they going to be expensive? It's about $40,000. So, for a price for range of getting about 600 km range on a charge, there's no other vehicle that comes close for that price. And do you think it can one day be mainstream? Well, absolutely. I mean, we have 50,000 orders right now, so we have to produce about $2 billion worth of vehicles to satisfy that. And I think once people start seeing them in their driveways and around town, the interest is only going
to increase. And again, back to your cars being roomy, but still very small. Now, can we imagine solar power used in public transport or lorries or buses one day? Absolutely. In fact, if you fly to the United States through Salt Lake Airport, chances are your airplane will be pushed back from the gate with an electric tug that is completely powered by our solar panels. So, we're already using our automotive grade solar technology in different segments altogether. And just very quickly, Nissan also recently unveiled its solar car, while the German startup Sono Motors has abandoned its solar car project because it just never became viable.
Is competition heating up then? I wouldn't say competition's heating up. A lot of manufacturers, big OEMs, have dabbled with adding a solar panel here or there. For us, it's not a panel. The solar is integrated into the vehicle, and it's the largest part of our IP portfolio. So, we're all about and only about solar transportation. It's not a fad, or it's not a gimmick for us. It's our core thesis. Well, Steve Fambro, co-CEO of Aptera Motors, thank you so much. My pleasure. Thank you. An interesting aspect, solar cars next.
Fascinating stuff, isn't it? Solar vehicles, can you imagine it? You know, I've envisioned it as something with like a big sort of solar panel on the roof, but it's not at all like that, is it? You know, you can have the panels discreetly placed somewhere in the bodywork to sort of enable that free charge, which is really interesting if that actually happens. And of course, if you live in a sunny place, well, all the better, you know. You can bet there'll be more business in right about an hour's time. Thank you very much indeed. Fascinating interview with Steve Fambro then.
We take a very short break. After that, more news. Stay with us.
